CruiseMapper's list of biggest cruise ships includes all vessels with gross tonnage (GT) over 130,000 tons. Each one of these behemothships is an engineering marvel produced by our contemporary age of fun and super technologies. Kudos to their builders and double kudos to their proud owners!

Note: In the following table, all links are internal (CruiseMapper) redirecting to the ship’s itinerary schedule where you can compare dates and prices per person (double occupancy rates)

Oasis-class - biggest cruise ship in the world ever built

World's currently largest cruise ship has passenger capacity over 8500 (guests-crew-officers). This is a Royal Caribbean class vessels built in 2 series - Oasis (Allure and Oasis) and Oasis-Plus (Harmony and Symphony). These are sisterships from the fleet of the second largest cruise company in the world - Royal Caribbean (after Carnival Corporation).

As to vessels' dimensions, each boasts the unimaginable weight of 227,000-230,000 GT / gross tons, LOA length 362 m (1187 ft) and waterline width 47 m (154 ft). The extreme breadth is over 60 m (198 ft). As the GT is a volume measurment, the ship's actual mass (called displacement) is approx 100,000 tons (the hull alone weighs about 54,000 tons). Surpassing all passenger ship standards, building cost and all previous ship travel vacation concepts, the Oasis-class ships are currently the only passenger shipping vessels of such immense size.

The world's biggest cruise ship propulsion system guarantees the perfect maneuverability by 3 rotatable Azipod thrusters (suspended under the ship's stern), each with a huge electric motor and a 6 m (20 ft) propeller. The ship offers great stability due to its enormous size. And in times of need - there are 18 lifeboats, each with capacity 370 people.

Oasis-Plus class is also currently the world's most technologically advanced and energy-efficient cruise vessel ever built. It is equipped with a new-generation exhaust gas cleaning system (multi-stream scrubbers) and with hull lubrication system allowing the ship to float on air bubbles (created around the hull) thus reducing drag and increasing fuel efficiency.

Biggest Carnival cruise ship - "Carnival Pinnacle" class

Watch this amazing YouTube video about the "Carnival Pinnacle cruise ship". The project was designed by the Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri as their biggest ever passenger ship - GT tonnage 200,000 tons, capacity 6000 passengers, length 380 m (1246 ft), The "Pinnacle Project" was initiated by Carnival Corporation in 2004 to tip the scales in the "Carnival vs Royal Caribbean" competition.

Carnival Pinnacle was never built as the project was officially cancelled (mainly due the vessel's incredible cost at that time). However, many of the project's elements and innovative design features were later adapted for other large-sized cruise liners built for rival companies.